As Malaysia mulls snap election, is Anwar Ibrahim’s PKR heading in a new direction?

The reformist PKR has stuttered at multiple by-elections, been beset by defections and its leader Anwar Ibrahim has faced calls to step aside

Upset victory of maverick Rafizi Ramli, for PKR deputy, suggests party is seeking a change, analysts say

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Prime Minister Ismail Sabri’s office building in Putrajaya, Malaysia. He may call a snap general election in the third quarter of 2022. Photo: AP

Published: 8:30am, 31 May 2022Updated: 9:22am, 31 May 2022

Since the shock collapse of Malaysia’s Pakatan Harapan government in March 2020, just 22 months after it swept to power, the fortunes of the coalition’s linchpin, the Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), has been in free fall.

Led by the country’s reformist icon Anwar Ibrahim, the PKR has stuttered at multiple by-elections. It has also been beset by defections and questions about its overtures to parties from the current governing bloc linked to Najib Razak, the scandal-haunted ex-prime minister.

Now, analysts say the recent upset victory of Rafizi Ramli, a maverick former lieutenant of Anwar, for the post of PKR’s deputy president, suggests party members are seeking a change in how the group approaches national politics.

Speculation is mounting that Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, a member of Najib’s powerful United Malays National Organisation (Umno), may call a snap general election in the third quarter of 2022, well ahead of a 2023 deadline.

Rafizi, a former MP and owner of the pollster Invoke, defeated the PKR’s secretary general Saifuddin Nasution in the race to be Anwar’s No 2. Saifuddin was seen as Anwar’s preferred candidate.

Anwar Ibrahim’s progressive-minded and multiracial PKR may be heading in a new direction. Photo: Bloomberg

Anwar, jailed twice on what supporters say are trumped-up charges of corruption and sodomy, co-founded the progressive-minded and multiracial PKR in the late 1990s as an alternative to the Umno juggernaut that has governed the country for much of its post-independence history.